India must step in to resolve the ongoing crisis in Gaza strip: Palestine envoy

India, a friend to both Israel and Palestine, must intervene to address the ongoing crisis in the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Ambassador to India, Abu Alhaija. Expressing Palestine’s stance against the killing of civilians and advocating for a peaceful resolution to the crisis, Alhaija said, “India is a friend to both. We want India to intervene and help us negotiate,” he said in an interview with NDTV. Israel vowed to escalate its response to an attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas with a ground offensive, while U.S. President Joe Biden pledged support for Israel and issued a warning to anyone who might seek to take advantage of the situation. Israel said dozens of its fighter jets struck more than 200 targets overnight on Wednesday in a neighbourhood of Gaza City that it said had been used by Hamas to launch its unprecedented wave of attacks. Gaza’s health ministry said at least 950 people have been killed and 5,000 injured in the crowded coastal enclave. On Saturday, Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip rampaged through parts of southern Israel, in the deadliest Palestinian militant attack in Israel’s history. Israel’s military said the death toll in Israel had reached 1,200 and more than 2,700 people had been wounded. “We have sustained extremely heavy casualties,” military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said in a video briefing on X, formerly known as Twitter. Israel says it has razed sections of Gaza as it takes revenge for the worst Hamas assaults in the 75-year-old history of its conflict with the Palestinians. Hamas militants holding Israeli soldiers and civilians hostage had threatened to execute a captive for each home in Gaza hit, but as night fell on Tuesday there was no indication they had done so. With inputs from Reuters.